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Jerome Valeska
Jerome Valeska is a recurring villain in the TV series Gotham. Originally a member of Haly's Circus, Jerome, having suffered a ceaseless stream of abuse for most of his life, finally snapped and turned to crime, starting with the murder of his mother, the source of his torment. Criminally insane and gleefully homicidal, Jerome found that he enjoyed committing violence and has plagued Gotham City with his unique brand of anarchy throughout the series. He was portrayed by Cameron Monaghan. The character of Jerome Valeska is based on the classic comic book villain, The Joker. ''Gotham's showrunners have stated that Jerome is not actually meant to be the Joker himself, but more of a precursor, a prototype, to the true Joker. Arguably, Jerome's twin brother Jeremiah (also portrayed by Cameron Monaghan) is the show's 'true' Joker, though he is never named as such throughout the series.'' Personality When he first appeared in the Season 1 episode "The Blind Fortune Teller", Jerome Valeska appeared to be a meek, timid young man. When his mother Lila was found murdered by Detective Jim Gordon, he appeared deeply remorseful. However, once it was revealed that he was the one responsible for the murder, this facade was immediately dropped, replaced a manic, uncaring and even gleeful psychopathic personality that reveled in violence and chaos. Jerome takes extreme pleasure in pursuing violent actions. Unlike other criminals who are motivated by wealth and power, he only commits crimes for the sheer thrill of it, killing whoever he wants and committing wanton destruction for no reason other than his own amusement. He is ruthless, unpredictable, and highly imaginative with his crimes; he is also supremely egotistical, making no effort to keep his crimes secret and enjoying all the attention he attracts from law enforcement and ordinary citizens alike. Jerome is also shown to be very charismatic, despite his mania. His actions have inspired other down-trodden citizens of Gotham towards performing wanton acts of violence, some even going so far as to imitate him directly and even devote themselves to him as fanatical zealots. Jerome even pointed out to Jim Gordon shortly before dying that he was more than merely a man, but a philosophy that would live on in Gotham's memory long after his death. History Season 1 Jerome made his first appearance in "The Blind Fortune Teller". After his mother Lila is found dead following a circus performance, he is questioned by Detective Jim Gordon and Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Jerome informed Gordon of his mother's sexual habits and of how she regularly abused him, yet maintained a facade of sorrow and remorse to throw off any possible suspicion that he might be the perpetrator. While questioning other members of Haly's Circus at the GCPD, Gordon was approached by Paul Cicero, a blind fortune teller. He claimed that Lila had spoken to him "from the other side", giving the message that the "servant of the Devil lay in the garden of the Iron Sisters". This led Thompkins and Gordon to Gotham Bridge, where they found the hatchet inscribed with markings of the Hellfire Club on it. Suspicious of numerous people, Gordon had Cicero, among others, brought to the precinct. Jim was able to determine that Paul was covering for someone, eventually determined to be Jerome, and the boy was brought in. In doing this, the detective also determined that Jerome was in fact, his biological son, which he would soon admit. Upon this revelation, Jerome broke down sobbing, but his whimpers soon turned to malicious giggling and he confessed to the crime, stating he had done so because his mother was a "nagging, drunken whore" before then bursting out into maniacal laughter. Following his arrest, Jerome was incarcerated in Arkham Asylum while his biological father took up residence in Gotham. Season 2 While in Arkham, Jerome quickly made acquaintances with some of his fellow inmates, such as Richard Sionis. When Barbara Kean was commited to Arkham after murdering her parents, Jerome was quick to try and befriend her too, though Barbara showed no interest in interacting with him until he suggested that she make nice with Sionis, who had connections within the asylum and could arrange to get things that she wanted. A lunatic who went by the monniker Zaardon was later admitted to Arkham, but died shortly after arriving as he released a powerful knockout gas from his body, rendering the inmates in the dining hall unconscious, including Jerome. Jerome, Barbara, Sionis, Aaron Helzinger, Arnold Dobkins and Robert Greenwood were all abducted from Arkham and brought to Theo Galavan, a wealthy socialite who was plotting to take over Gotham. After the lunatics regained consciousness and met their liberator, Galavan introduced himself and shared with them his plan to assemble a group of brilliant criminals that would terrorize Gotham and bring the city to its knees. Sionis refused to go along with Galavan's scheme, but the others were quick to agree after watching Galavan's sister Tabitha violently stab Sionis to death. Jerome was exhilarated by Galavan's plan (and also by watching Sionis die) and was more than happy to go along with it if it meant he could have some fun. The day after their escape, Jerome and the other escapees - now going by the group name "The Maniax" - made their group debut in Gotham by abducting seven random people, dressing them in straitjackets each spraypainted with a letter in the Maniax name (as well as an exclamation mark at the end) and shoved each of them off the roof of the Gotham Gazette. After this bloody debut, the group met with Galavan who planned the Maniax' next spree of violent acts and tried to teach the group the art of stagecraft, intent on gaining as much media coverage of their exploits as possible. Jerome, having grown up in Haly's Circus, already had a flair for the dramatic and was keen to put it to use, demonstrating to Galavan his ability to carry his voice to draw attention. Galavan also encouraged Jerome to use his unnerving laughter in his performance to instill fear in people. While the Maniax prepared for their next attack, Jerome and Greenwood got into a dispute over who should lead the team. Greenwood felt he should lead since he had built up a larger body count than Jerome and had previously terrorized Gotham with his cannibalistic activities, arguing that Jerome hadn't done anything beyond killing his mother. Jerome argued that "everyone has to start somewhere" and that he was smarter, more creative and ambitious. Galavan decided to let the two settle their dispute with a game of Russian Roulette, handing them a revolver. Greenwood went first, putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger, with no gory results. Jerome went next and proceeded to pull the trigger on himself three times, demonstrating his daring and his absense of fear for his life, claiming leadership of the Maniax. The Maniax then targeted a group of high school cheerleaders on a bus. They doused the bus in gasoline and planned to set it on fire, but the intervention of the GCPD forced the Maniax to retreat. Disguised as police officers, the Maniax then infiltrated the GCPD. Jerome soon revealed himself as he and his men took Commissioner Sarah Essen hostage. Essen then told Jerome that he was going to die and no-one would even remember his name. Jerome hissed that the Maniax' influence would spread like a virus and asked her if she knew why. Greenwood said there was nothing more contagious than laughter, so Jerome shot him for stealing his line. Sarah then headbutted Jerome, and he responded by killing her. Before fleeing the scene, Jerome used Greenwood's camcorder to record a video message for the people of Gotham. Jerome's next target was his father, Paul Cicero. With Tabitha's help, he tied Paul to a chair and told him of how his mother's lovers abused him and that Paul had comforted him, marginally. He told Paul that he had created some fake documents written in braille that would point to Paul arranging for Jerome's escape from Arkham and intended to make Paul's death look like a suicide. He then asked Paul what his future is, and Paul proclaimed that his son would be a plague upon Gotham, and his legacy would be one of death, destruction and madness. Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock arrived at the apartment building before Jerome was done tormenting his father, so Jerome killed Paul quickly and made his escape. Jerome would then attack a charity fundraiser, disguising himself as a stage magician with Barbara disguised as the magician's assistant. There, Jerome killed the Deputy Mayor before taking the entire hall of people hostage. Theo Galavan was present in the hall and put on a show of trying to stop them, and Barbara pretended to hit him with a mallet. Jerome asked for Bruce Wayne, threatening to shoot his butler and guardian Alfred Pennyworth. Bruce revealed himself and Jerome held him hostage. Theo then appeared behind Jerome and stabbed him in the neck, quietly apologized to him and said that now he was the hero. Up to that point, Jerome had been led to believe that Theo was molding him into a star criminal, but in reality Theo had set up the Maniax as a foil for his plan to portray himself as a hero to Gotham City to cement the foundation of his mayoral campaign and his plot to destroy the Wayne family. While Jerome had been nothing more than a pawn in Galavan's game, the predictions that both he and his father had made ultimately came to pass. Across Gotham, people were watching news coverage of Jerome's caper, and while most citizens were terrified by this new breed of criminal, others were emboldened, leading to a series of killings across the city by individuals that had been inspired by Jerome's anarchistic antics. Season 3 Following his death, Jerome's corpse was obtained by Professor Hugo Strange and kept in cryogenic stasis at the Indian Hill research facility. However, Indian Hill was shut down before Strange began experimenting on Jerome. Dwight Pollard, a former researcher of Indian Hill, had been studying Jerome's escapades and had developed a fanatical devotion to his unique brand of chaos, forming a cult around him. After recovering Jerome's frozen body, Dwight used Strange's research into resurrection to attempt to reanimate Jerome. His attempt seemingly failed, but his fellow cultists demanded Jerome. With the GCPD hunting him down, Dwight resorted to cutting off Jerome's face and wearing it as a grotesque mask. After Dwight and the cultists had vacated their meeting place, the GCPD recovered Jerome's now faceless body and brought it to the morgue at police headquarters. In the morgue, Jerome suddenly woke up, his resurrection merely delayed. After killing a cop and taking his gun, as well as bandaging his head, Jerome held Lee Thompkins at gunpoint, asking what had happened since his death. Lee told him that he now had a cult following and, when Jerome recalled her being Jim Gordon's girlfriend, told him about how Jim had killed her new husband right after their wedding. Jerome found that particularly amusing and recalled how Theo Galavan had killed him, telling Lee that he planned on taking revenge against Galavan. Lee then told Jerome that Galavan was already dead, much to Jerome's disappointment. Jerome then asked her where his face was and, with her not knowing the location, decided to gag her. Suddenly, he saw Channel 9 News started broadcasting and showed Dwight with Jerome's face and Jerome proclaimed that Dwight had no charisma. Jerome then took a police car and, after hitting a pedestrian, went to the Channel 9 News Studio. After Dwight was arrested, Jerome loaded Dwight up and took back his face as he kidnapped Dwight, leaving in a cop car. Jerome then took him to the city's power plant. Once there, Jerome stapled his face back on with a staple gun and, at first, was nice to a increasingly frightened Dwight, exclaiming "What's a cut-off face between friends" since he brought him back. However, he later beat him, tied him up, laced him with explosives, and then began to broadcast a message of his own. He held a speech saying that everyone in Gotham could "Do what you want. Kill who you want". He then lit a firecracker and threw it on the ground in front of Dwight, telling him "I don't forgive you for the face" before laughing hysterically and leaving. Dwight stared blankly as the power plant exploded, killing him and putting Gotham in a city wide blackout. Jerome's speech seemed to have a pretty strong effect as rioting began shortly after, with regular citizens taking his "cue". He then went to Bruce's house and began to destroy Bruce's belongings, including the Court of Owls glass statue. When Bruce asked why he was at his mansion, Jerome told him "Because I'm going to kill you" stating that it was the last thing Jerome wanted to do. Bruce then convinced him that his death should be a public one, and Jerome then took Bruce away and told his goons to kill Alfred, however he was saved by Jim Gordon. Jerome took Bruce to the Boardwalk Circus that his cult had taken over, and Bruce was horrified at what he saw. Jerome's cult had turned the circus's games into much darker versions of them, most of which involved hurting and/or killing people. He then told Bruce that Gotham had no heroes. He was about to throw a baseball at a button that would drop a man into a tank filled with piranhas, however Bruce pushed him. He then pushed the button, dropping the man into the tank and he was devoured by the piranhas, much to the distress of Bruce. Jerome then used a staple gun to staple his face back on because it was falling off. Bruce asked him if it hurt and Jerome came over and stapled his arm. To Jerome's surprise, Bruce didn't show any emotion at all so he stapled him again and Bruce once again showed no reaction. However, after Jerome stapled his arm for the third time, he yelled out in pain as an amused Jerome laughed. He then took Bruce over to a mirror where a cult member painted his face. Jerome then stabbed the cult member in the stomach, put his finger in his wound and then painted a frown on Bruce's face with blood, saying "Let's turn that frown, upside down" with a laugh. Jerome then took Bruce over to the main part of the circus where a huge crowd of his cult members was waiting for "the main event". He tied Bruce up on a wooden pole with handcuffs and "entertained" his "guests". Jerome brought a cannon over and set it up so it was aimed at Bruce. He then proceeded to dump knives, nails and a canon ball into the cannon, proclaiming that Bruce was to suffer "death by a thousand cuts". Just as he was about to light the fuse, however, Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Alfred arrived with the rest of the GCPD and fought against the cult members. However, Jerome lit the fuse and ran away laughing. Bruce was able to escape just as the cannon went off, using the staples shot into his arm to pick the handcuffs lock. Jerome went looking for Bruce and saw him run into a hall of mirrors and followed him. Jerome cautiously stepped into the hall of mirrors and began seeing reflections of Bruce all around him, shooting until he ran out of ammo. Bruce then said that he wanted Jerome to follow him and that Jerome was going to pay for what he'd done. Drawing a knife, Jerome prowled around the hall of mirrors searching for Bruce. Bruce tackled the madman from behind, knocking him to the floor, and began punching him in the face over and over until Jerome's face came loose and started to come off. Even as he was being beaten, Jerome just laughed maniacally, seemingly enjoying the pain. An enraged Bruce grabbed a shard of glass off the floor, preparing to stab Jerome. Jerome urged Bruce to do it, but Bruce looked into the mirror shard with horror, seeing that he was lowering himself to Jerome's level and becoming just as bloodthirsty. Shamefully, Bruce dropped the glass shard and ran out of the hall of mirrors. Jerome followed Bruce out of the hall of mirrors seconds later, brandishing a piece of glass. As Bruce was embracing Alfred and telling Gordon and Bullock what had happened, Jerome charged screaming at Bruce. Gordon stepped in to protect Bruce and punched Jerome square in the jaw, hitting him so hard that his precariously loose face was knocked clear off his head and hit the floor with a mild splat. Jerome was later taken back to Arkham Asylum where the doctors would reattach his face. Season 4 In the three months following his arrest, Jerome found Oswald Cobblepot locked up in the cell next to him, who had vowed revenge against those who had betrayed him, such as Sofia Falcone and Victor Zsasz. Valeska quickly began taunting him over the course of his days in Arkham, vowing to cure him of sanity, believing that the "best cure is laughter". Jerome successfully does this, and thanks to him, Oswald manages to manipulate his way out of Arkham by signaling the Riddler persona in Edward Nygma. Sometime after sharing his plans with Cobblepot, Jerome concocted a plan with Jervis Tetch and Jonathan Crane to break out of Arkham to wreak havoc in Gotham City. After Cobblepot escaped with help from Nygma, Tetch hypnotized the guards to set Crane and Jerome free. While Tetch hypnotized the city to have civillians jump off buildings come midnight, Jerome paid a visit to his abusive uncle Zachary Trumble, forcing him to cover his tracks before trying to kill him, but is overpowered by Lunkhead. As Bruce arrived to save Jerome, Jerome manages to kill Zachary, and leaves Bruce to die. Selina interferes, and tries to shoot him. However Bruce saves Jerome, as he starts to think that Jerome was innocent and that his uncle was to blame for his ways. Jerome fled from the area, and he rescued Tetch from a prison bus after Tetch's plans failed. He then revealed that his next step was to attack a school in Gotham, to locate a Wayne Enterprises associate, Xander Wilde, although Jerome knows full well that Wilde is his twin brother, Jeremiah Valeska. After creating a crew of the most feared villains in Gotham - Cobblepot, Tetch, Crane, Bridgit Pike, Freeze and later, Solomon Grundy - Jerome attacked Wayne Plaza, and gunned down members of the Wayne board when "Wilde" was nowhere to be seen. Jerome escaped just as the GCPD interfered. Jerome later learned of a "proxy" related to Wilde and searched her apartment. The proxy, Ecco, arrived and knocked out Jerome, sending him into Jeremiah's captivity. Tetch and Crane rescued Jerome, and while the two distracted Gordon and Bullock, Jerome finally, after several years, reunited with his brother. Jerome blamed the seemingly innocent and calm Jeremiah for his abusive childhood, and promised to make him as insane as he was. Escaping with Crane and Tetch back to Dahl Manor, Jerome witnessed Scarecrow's new toxin: a gas that caused its victims to experience vivid hallucinations and ultimately laugh themselves - quite literally - to death. After testing it on a businessman, Jerome was delighted with the results, and sent Freeze and Scarecrow to attack a Wayne Enterprises lab to manufacture more. Jeorme kidnapped four hostages - including the Mayor of Gotham and the GCPD Commissioner - and took position onto the stage of a music festival, televising his threat. When the GCPD arrived, Jerome offered Captain Gordon an ultimatum, to bring Jeremiah Valeska and Bruce Wayne to the stage, or he would kill the hostages one by one with explosives strapped to their necks. However, this was just simply Jerome stalling while Crane finished manufacturing the laughing gas, and loading it on a blimp to disperse into the festival's populace. Predicting Cobblepot's betrayal - as he confessed to Jerome's plans earlier, Jerome had Tetch lock Cobblepot in the blimp. The GCPD's plan to eliminate Jerome with positioned snipers failed, as Jerome's goons dispatched them before they could do their job. Jerome tried to convince Jeremiah into insanity, by handing him a knife and offering him the chance to attack. Jeremiah does so, but Jerome dodges the attack, and proceeds to kick and beat him. As the blimp carrying the laughing gas took flight, Gordon drew a gun and shot at Jerome, hitting him in the shoulder. Jerome ran for cover and attempted to kill the remaining hostages, but his remote detonator wouldn't work thanks to a short-wave radio scrambling device set up by Jeremiah and Bruce. Running up to a building, Jerome saw the blimp diverging into the festival. Gordon arrived to find Jerome contacting the hypnotized pilot to drop the payload, so he shot the phone out of his hand. Despite his injuries, Jerome screams over the phone to release the toxin, to which Gordon then shoots Jerome point-blank in the chest. Jerome toppled over the edge of the roof and Gordon ran over to find the lunatic still holding on to the edge. Jerome then asked if Gordon would help him up and uphold the law, or let him die. Gordon chose the former, but Jerome wouldn't take his hand and mocked him, stating that he would outlive Gordon as a philosophy, living on in the minds of Gotham's underworld for years to come. With that, Jerome bid Gordon farewell as he lost his grip and fell to his death, laughing hysterically all the way down. Jerome was finally dead, but as he had promised, his legacy would endure. Before carrying out his final caper, he had left behind a parting "gift" for his brother Jeremiah. When Jeremiah returned to his bunker after the day's harrowing events, he found a box waiting for him. When he opened it, a jack popped out and sprayed his face with a derivative of Crane's laughing gas, turning Jeremiah into a twisted, deranged psychopath much like his brother before him. Category:TV Characters Category:TV Deaths Category:Supporting Characters Category:Humans Category:Villains Category:Psychopaths Category:Killers Category:DC Characters Category:Gotham Category:Unexpected Deaths Category:Stabbed to Death Category:Resurrected Characters Category:Multiple Death Syndrome Category:Mass Murderers Category:Death by Falling